Hello: Tamani Carter

Well... this one caught me by surprise. The Wolverine is reporting that OH CB Tamani Carter (a recent commit to Minnesota) has switched his commitment to the Wolverines. Carter hails from Pickerington Central, the Columbus suburb that gave us the likes of Justin Boren (who attended North).

INFORMATIVE PORTION

GURU RATINGS

Scout

Rivals

ESPN

3*, #104 CB

3*, 5.5, NR CB

2*, 74, #151 CB

The recruiting sites are in sliiiight disagreement on his height, with the majority coming to a consensus of about 5-11. All three sites list his weight as 175 pounds. We'll start with ESPN's evaluation:

Carter is a quick-footed skill prospect with very good athleticism... On defense, he transitions and closes the cushion quickly. Shows good underneath burst jumping routes in zone schemes... Has good extension, timing and leaping skills making him a very effective defender on the jump-ball. While fluid with good footwork, we do feel like he will be challenged in man-to-man coverage at the major college level. Appears quicker than fast and lacks great explosiveness and top-end speed needed to recover vertically. May struggle to press and set the edge on run support until he builds up his upper-body... Overall, Carter is a fluid athlete with great ball skills. Lacks game-changing attributes when projecting for major college level but will add good versatility and athleticism to a future roster.

They also evaluate him as a slot receiver on offense, but believe me, Michigan doesn't need more of those. Their overall evaluation seems to be "solid, BCS-level talent, but not a difference-maker at the BCS level." This is an odd evaluation considering their rankings of "hey, maybe this guy can play D-1 football." I imagine the lower end of their rankings are still being updated (the new 150 came out yesterday).

“I cover really well. I have great hips and closing speed. I also play offense and I’m very explosive. I want to improve my speed. And I’m still working on my feet. Overall, I’d like to get bigger and stronger.”

That's right in line with ESPN's evaluation, right down to saying he's quicker than he is fast.

Tamani also has his own website, praising mostly his work ethic, intensity, and academics. It also clips a few reviews of his game:

He's quick, changes directions well and showed good ball skills, making the breaks without drawing interference... He's a guy who we may have underrated some...

Carter was committed to Minnesota before switching to Michigan, so he obviously held an offer from Jerry Kill's Gophers. Rivals also lists Air Force, Arizona, Iowa, Kent State, Stanford, and 1-AA Youngstown State.

A couple schools on that list (most notably Iowa and Stanford) have a recent history of developing under-the-radar prospects into stars, particularly in the defensive backfield in Iowa's case.

Tamani Carter finished his senior season (11-1) with 55 tackles and three interceptions. Two of those were returned for touchdowns (one of 96 yards and the other for 34 yards). He also caught 25 balls for over 300 yards.

Those are solid numbers, but it's hard to evaluate the stats of high school defensive backs, since there is such a wide variety of offenses faced.

ESPN says he had 5 picks, including one returned for a touchdown, as a junior.

FAKE 40 TIME

Rivals and Scout both list him with a precise 4.48 40-yard dash time. That's quite good, but not exceptional, for a defensive back. Considering the book on Carter (very quick) and the level of agreement between the sites, I'm forced to give a mere one FAKE out of five.

VIDEO

Highlights:

PREDICTION BASED ON FLIMSY EVIDENCE

Michigan started several freshman defensive backs last season, and Carter's scouting reports say that he needs to bulk up before being ready to contribute at the next level. That screams "redshirt," and I think that's a likely outcome for Carter's freshman year.

Even as a redshirt freshman, I think Michigan has enough athletic guys that even time on special teams will be hard to come by. As a redshirt sophomore, however, he might start getting serious special teams time, and as a redshirt junior and redshirt senior, he should work into the rotation on defense.

He's a solid player who will probably never be a star, but rather a role player.

UPSHOT FOR THE REST OF THE CLASS

As Tom tweeted, this is an odd commitment, considering Michigan has multiple DBs visiting in the next couple weeks. Those guys are more ready to contribute immediately, and unlike Carter, are not similar body types to several of Michigan's DBs already on the roster (Terrence Talbott and Courtney Avery are both average-to-small corners that are pretty thin).

This likely means that Michigan only feels good about their chances with, say, one of those defensive backs, and that somebody we haven't been expecting to play safety - either somebody on the roster (Cullen Christian) or a commit (Greg Brown) - will do so. Remaining DB commits in this class are likely to be looked at for safety as well.

was frankly way more informative than your post Tim. You could have at least included what position and which school in your post (Yes, I am aware of a little site called Google, just holding you to the same standard you hold others to when posting).

Tim is really busy writing Hello posts for guys like Kris Frost, Darian Cooper, Stefan McClure, Frank Clark, Aundrey Walker, and maybe Lamar Dawson. He is also trying to catch up on random prospects that are now appearing out of thin air. Mattison went straight to the recruiting trail and brought a case of Snake Oil.

That's been a problem for a long time now, seemingly ever since Sweater-vest came in. I remember from the Maple Street Press preview a long article about how Michigan recruiting almost gave up on Ohio under Lloyd. It's going to take time to rebuild those relationships as well as enough of a rep in Ohio to get those guys again.

It's so nice to watch a DB who actually closes on a receiver and makes a hit. I'd like to see more fundamentally sound tackling, but he looks like he's going to be a solid player. Dynamic eye for the ball.

Sam Webb was speculating that the reason we're going after DBs still is because on the roster we actually don't have very many true safeties. We have many hybrid, tweener types due to the 3-3-5 scheme. As far as true free safeties go, we have basically Vinopal. Carvin Johnson and M. Robinson are sort of hybrid types that might be strong safeties if we play a 4-3.

So basically, I think Hoke is recruiting free safeties because right now we only have 1, and he isn't very good at this point, no disrespect.

but I thought Vinopal showed more promise at Free Safety than anyone we've had in recent memory. He shouldn't have been playing as a true freshman, almost no one should. But he is fast, reads the ball in the air well and tackles with authority. He just needs a lot more muscle. Give him some time in the weight room and I think he will be quite good. I think he could be all big ten by his senior year.

hopefully a guy that pans out for the future. I like that Hoke is focusing on DBs that are bigger and not the pint size ones that RR had. Not necessarily saying that the small ones are good, just saying that you usually want bigger DBs with the size of WRs these days.

Dude what are you talking about? Do you get all your information from the Freep? This kid is listed at 5' 11" 175. That is big? Who cares how big your corners are they just need to play. Also, C. Christian and T. Talbott are both bigger than this kid and Avery was about the same size. Countess is bigger this year, Hollowell smaller. Yeah RR only brought in tiny db's.